We are living in an alarming time in the United States with a drastic increase in cop killings and an abnormally high amount of murders of ‘Unarmed’ black men by cops. We are hearing of strategic ambushes to kill policemen whose goal is to protect and serve. We are hearing of black southern churches being burned down, black people hunted down to kill by a new emerging KKK group and young black children are being shot for reasons we understand to be as normal, rebellious behavior in white teen boys.
For a long time, I have sat back and observed. I have research and learned as much as I can to decipher what it is WE are missing here.
What are WE over-looking?
The problem with many media outlets is a juicy story trumps responsible reporting. Online news sites count on our emotional reactions to their stories because they get paid when you click on their sites. They purposefully title their articles with generational trigger words like “murder”, “white cop” & “black man” so it will explode in views, shares and likes. Many articles are biased and target human emotions by persuading us to join a side and smear the other, because those articles entice heavy debates and enforce the convictions of polarizing groups. Ironically, most people tend to gravitate to the side they support without seeking a well-rounded perspective because validation is more important than truth for the ego.
There are no bad groups of people.
There are bad individuals who belong to a stereotyped group.
You can care about everyone.
We should care about everyone!
But, is there more to it?
According to neuroscientist & educator Daniel Do, our belief of free will is an illusion. Yes, you read that correctly – an illusion! Neuroscientists can predict at any given moment, seconds before you do it, any of your basic action decisions just by looking at how your brain is firing on a brain image computer. Soon enough, the technology to predict major thought processes, such as obsessing over your love life, will be possible to predict as well.
“Free will cannot be grounded in logic, science or experience. We can logically reduce that it is incompatible with the laws of physics. Experimentally verify that choice is a product of unconscious neurological processes. Observe through careful introspection that your sense of control is an illusion.” Daniel Do’s video, Free Will is an Illusion is provided below for those seeking more information on this truth bomb.
In summary, our choices and thoughts are a product of experience and what we allow to be programmed into our minds. If you program love, forgiveness, acceptance, and gratitude, and continue to program this into your mind, your choices will fire love, forgiveness, acceptance and gratitude. An original thought leading to an original choice is rare! Hence, the importance of seeking higher education continuously – learning should not stop when you leave school. This results in a stagnation of thinking and choice options. The more you learn, the more well-rounded your perspective, the better choices you can make. It’s that simple. Essentially, a criminal is only a victim of their programming, their upbringing. This is why I support rehabilitation over imprisonment, but that is for another article.
So, how does this information, the illusion of free will, apply to racism?
Right now, we are continuously being fed the cop vs. criminal subliminal narrative in media, specifically “white cop” & “black criminal” or “corrupt cop” & “innocent black lives”. This polarizing story line has been a part of our culture for centuries, and passed down from our parents and grandparents, as slave owner vs. slave, whites vs. blacks, good vs. bad, institution vs. individual, light vs. dark, pure vs. evil, the list goes on……
For those who have achieved apathy, non-caring, it’s like being forced to watch the same episode of Vampire Diaries over and over again, you begin to hate the show and its characters and you feel disgust & repulsed with anything in likeness.
These violent scenarios play out in movies & TV which further desensitizes us to the issue in reality. The majority of Americans are watching “race wars” play on their local news stations, they offer a few judgments, then they change the channel as if they just watched an episode of staged reality TV. There was a time when Americans were active and responsible in speaking out for the wrongdoings in their country. But, the masses are annoyed with the narrative and you can see it in the immediate reactions that step right over empathy, slowly graze reasoning, pass action & responsibility and land right into apathy. Media is robbing us of caring and replacing it with extremists thoughts of numbness, hate or distrust.
When was the last time you sat in reflection of how you unconsciously react to black people? When you see a black person, do you hold your purse tighter? Pull your children closer? Walk the other direction? Assume they have a criminal record? Many White Americans are desensitized to the feelings of Black Americans due to media’s repeated barrage of black people as criminals. White people struggle with separating any black individual from their racially profiled group unless proven “one of the good ones”. Don’t believe me? Just YouTube the many videos that show how people react to black people for doing everyday activities, like sitting next to them while waiting for the bus or standing next to a black person in the grocery store line. (A video is provided below)
But, we have no issues separating ourselves from other white people!
The majority of mass shootings are from white males, does that make all white males murderers? No.
90% of murderers are male, does that make all men murderers? No.
Then, why are black people so heavily stereotyped as “bad” or inhuman?
It’s because we are trained to view black people this way through fictional characters and selective media stories & pictures where media strategically picks the most thuggish looking photo they can find!
“The “new” Republican Party is masterful in its ability to manipulate white racial animus and resentment against African-Americans and other people of color to serve its agenda. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Republican Party developed what came to be known as “the Southern Strategy” where by giving poverty a black and brown face, exaggerating black criminality, and playing on white fears of “affirmative action” and “reverse racism”, they would be able to win over white male working class voters across the Midwest and Northeast, as well as white Southerners.
By distorting and misrepresenting crime and poverty as cultural pathologies exclusive to black Americans, the White Right and the Republican Party are able to attack a broad range of social safety net programs such as support for poor children, food assistance programs, unemployment insurance, and the broader idea that there should be federal assistance and aid for Americans in their time of economic hardship. Cuts to these programs are in turn used to subsidize global corporations that outsource American jobs, destroy the middle class, and give further tax cuts to the plutocrats and the 1 percent.”
In the past, cops have always been displayed as heroes in movies like in the old westerns. The American Police are now being programmed in media, within the last few decades, as collectively narcissistic, macho, corrupt, trigger happy racists. This is simply not true. When was the last time you saw a heroic police story make a wave through the media like the more recent cop brutality narratives? Policing is not working for police, just as it is not working for us. That is the fault of the institution, not most cops as an individual. They are taught to protect us with violence and fear, passed down from generation to generation. They have always been taught to protect the innocents, no matter what!
Cops need de-escalating training, training on how to handle the mentally ill, very basic medical training, regular mental evaluations, to not fear being fired for calling out another cop for poor policing due to office politics, they need body cams, dash cams, proper incident data procedure to protect themselves in impossible situations with legit criminals and they need our patience & support in the meantime. The police are always a reflection of the times and they will always be a few steps behind the most idealist pioneering activists.
To those who want to take down the police, all these cop ambush killings are senseless – an honest person who dedicated their life to protecting your life, is lost! For what? Somehow, my spidey-senses are telling me that young black men were pushed to violence so this narrative that the rich have been spinning for centuries would actualize and validate martial law. Do not play into the narrative!
“White racial paranoiac thinking excuse-makes for and legitimates the repeated killing of unarmed black people by America’s police and other such abuses. But, the militarization of police, the rise of the surveillance society, and how thug cops routinely abuse and violate the civil rights of the public (usually without any consequences) should be a concern for all Americans—this is especially true for white people because in absolute numbers they are the ones subjected to the most police violence.”
It is almost as if cops are purposefully offered limited training to feed the white cop vs. black criminal narrative that keeps Americans at odds with one another so we avoid seeing the larger picture here. Cops need to be able to do their job well and black people deserve to be safe and thriving in our country.
What can we do to reverse the narrative we are living in?
- Now is the time to contact your local district rep and make sure they are instilling body cams and collecting police shooting data.
- Contact your local police and express your concerns about recent events in the states and see if they are offering de-escalating technique training to their officers.
- Hold your local police & district rep accountable for your city’s safety!
- Educate yourself on how to minimize your chances of being an “incident” statistic.
- Open up the conversation with adults and teach your children early.
- Re-program your unconscious mind with various perspectives and higher learning.
- Begin new trends of love, forgiveness, gratitude and acceptance.
- Reflect regularly on your unconscious habits, behaviors, thoughts and feelings.
- Limit your exposure to violence from all sources, especially in movies, TV & video games.
- Hold yourself accountable! Be an example for others to follow.
- If you have other ideas, please add them in the comment section below.
More importantly, be aware of the pattern that promotes race wars. This is an old manipulative tactic:
“During the 17th century, race and Whiteness in America were created in the crucible known as “Bacon’s Rebellion.” White and black indentured servants and other laborers were united together in common interest against the landed elite. But, white elites were able to utilize the tactic of divide and conquer by granting white indentured servants land, guns, and money at the end of their term of service. This elevated poor whites over their former black allies because the same white elites in turn mandated that chattel slavery was a permanent and unique type of punishment and servitude exclusive to black people.
In the South, 1892, Populist leaders tried to rally both white and black farmers against white bankers and others elites who held them economically hostage. But again, the manipulation of white racial animus and anxiety helped to break the movement as white elites used terrorism and white supremacist appeals to break the intraracial alliances at the heart of the Populist movement.
During the 1950s & 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King’s radically democratic and inclusive vision for improving American society would meet great resistance when he turned his attention to racism and white supremacy in America’s northern cities. White northerners were very resistant to his efforts to expand fair housing and to end segregation. The media and political elites turned on Dr. King, where by the time of his death he was viewed by white Americans as one of the country’s most unpopular public figures.
Dr. King’s broadly humanistic and radical vision would have improved the lives of white and working class—and yes, even middle class—Americans across the colorline. But, white racial resentment and hostility to his dream cut short the full potential of the Civil Rights Movement as what some historians have come to describe as a type of third American founding and rebirth.”
It’s about time Americans change our narrative with conscious actions and concern for all.
Here is some data I have collected that I feel is important to know:
“Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the UNARMED men shot to death by police this year.”
“Most often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings.”
“Many chiefs say the cameras boost public confidence in the police, but most departments do not yet use them. About 6 percent of fatal shootings this year were captured by body cameras, according to The Post’s database.”
“The landscape of police shootings is surprisingly thinly explored. The FBI is charged with keeping statistics on such shootings, but a Post analysis of FBI data showed that fewer than half of the nation’s 18,000 police departments report their incidents to the agency.”
“The FBI will replace its current program with a “near real-time” database to be made public by 2017, said Stephen L. Morris, a senior FBI official whose division is responsible for collecting crime data.”
“The Post’s database shows that nearly 1 in 3 shootings that result from a car chase start with a traffic stop for a minor infraction.”
“Officers fatally shot at least 243 people with mental health problems: 75 who were explicitly suicidal and 168 for whom police or family members confirmed a history of mental illness.”
“The analysis found that about 9 in 10 of the mentally troubled people were armed, usually with guns but also with knives or other sharp objects. But the analysis also found that most of them died at the hands of police officers who had not been trained to deal with the mentally ill.”
“The Post found that an average of five officers per year have been indicted on felony charges over the previous decade; this year, 18 officers have been charged with felonies including murder, manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm.”
“The number of police officers shot and killed in the USA is 44% higher than at this time last year following the Dallas ambush.”
“The deaths of four Dallas police officers and one Dallas transit officer from sniper fire during a protest in the city Thursday raised the national total of firearm deaths among police to 26. This compares with 18 at this point in time in 2015, said Nick Breul, director of research for the fund in Washington, D.C.
Breul said it was also the latest of 11 ambushes of police officers so far this year across the country, already outpacing the eight ambushes of law enforcement that occurred last year.”
http://www.joincampaignzero.org/#action
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/08/nationwide-police-shooting-deaths/86861082/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/27/us/mass-shootings/
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